Nutty granola cookies

Just the other day I have been reading an article about the correct ways of melting the white chocolate, and how much more capricious it is in comparison to its milk and dark brothers. Did I heed the wise advice? My melting session ended up as a fiasco, and I had to rethink on how to decorate what was supposed to be Granola Chocolate Cookies.
The original recipe was sent to me by Jordans together with a bag of nutty granola to try a new recipe for Mother's day. The recipe looked delicious, and my guys love cookies, of course, I'll do it.
Here is the original recipe for Granola Cherry & Chocolate Cookies (reproduced on my blog with kind permission from Jordans)

Ingredients:
50g Jordans Super Nutty Granola
100g plain flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
75g light muscovado sugar
75g dried cherries
75g butter
3 tbsp golden syrup
75g white chocolate, broken into pieces

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C (fan oven to 160C), gas mark 4. Line a large baking sheet (or 2 smaller ones) with baking paper. I would say, definitely two, as the cookies expand considerably as they get baked.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, cherries and Jordans Super Nutty granola, breaking up any large clusters with your fingertips.
3. Melt the butter and syrup together in a saucepan over a low heat, taking care that the mixture doesn't get too hot. Pour into the dry cookie ingredients and mix well.
4. Shape the mixture into 9-12 balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet, spaced apart to allow for spreading. Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown. I made 15 cookies, and they were not small. I think if you make just 9 balls, you'll get gigantic cookies.
Cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, positioned over a saucepan of simmering water. Use a teaspoon to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies. Serve when the chocolate has set.

Cook's tips: Use plain or milk chocolate instead of white for drizzling over the chocolate cookies.
Try using sultanas, dried blueberries or cranberries instead of cherries, for a change.
Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Now back to my saga. First of all, I couldn't find any dried cherries, I knew I had a packet somewhere, but either I have hidden it too well, or someone has sneakily eaten them all and threw the empty packet away. Both is possible. I had plenty of raisins, so I used them instead. I suppose the dried cherries would work really well with white chocolate though.

As my white chocolate melting session turned into yet another cooking disaster and curdled, I ended up with a solidified lump. I tried to soften it with butter and golden syrup, but it still looked unspreadable and quite unappetising. Thus I had to improvise and make a lemon icing with the icing sugar and lemon juice.
The cookies are very sweet, I would reduce the amount of golden syrup maybe to 2. And maybe increase the amount of granola. Jordans Nutty Granola is a delicious granola for all nut lovers.

Nutty granola is a lovely ingredient in baking, and I am sure it won't be long before we have another cookie baking session, though I will stay clear of the white chocolate next time. So much easier to melt the milk chocolate.

Disclosure: Thanks to Jordans for sending us a bag of Nutty granola with the recipe for the purposes of trying the recipe.

My fellow bloggers were testing different recipes with Jordans granola and crisps. Check out what they made.
Mother's Day Strawberry and Lemon Munchkins
and
(more to come)